We have made the official move to the new apartment. The first night went fairly smooth and the new digs feel very homey indeed. Carter and Nathan adjusted right away and loved having a full bathtub to soak in. We are still in the midst of transferring ADSL to our new apartment so I have not been able to upload any photos of the new pad just yet but look for those in the coming days.
Alice spent all day yesterday (while I was at work) taking the last of our gear upstairs and so she nor the Ai Yi (nanny) were able to put together any dinner. When presented with the option of cooking I pulled the dad routine and suggested McDonald’s. Carter had his shoes and coat on faster than I could say …. well .. “McDonald’s” The two photos below are of Nathan who was just as happy to get out even though he had no idea where we were going.
Apparently a couple of brothers from BC have a video making the rounds at YouTube of a “large humanoid creature” which many are purporting to be Bigfoot (see story HERE and video HERE. Just to warn you the “large humanoid creature” appears for maybe 3 or 4 seconds in a 1:34 long video. It could be a bear, a man in a dark jacket, or schmutz on the lens. As Warhol said everyone gets their 15 minutes of fame.
This got me thinking about my fascination with Bigfoot when I was a kid. It wasn’t to the obsession level that my friend Michael Garry had with sharks but my curiosity was definitely piqued. Imagine the awe and wonder I had when on February 1st, 1976 the “Six Million Dollar Man” aired the episode “The Secret of Bigfoot: Part I” only to be followed a week later with the epic “The Secret of Bigfoot: Part II”. I still have very vivid memories of Andre The Giant cast as Bigfoot battling Steve Austin in the forest. Of course a young hot Stephanie Powers (Hart to Hart) as Shalon in that awesome one piece spacesuit didn’t hurt either. Thankfully some kind soul posted a clip of the battle between Steve and Bigfoot on YouTube. The clip is over 8 minutes long so only indulge if you are a true Steve Austin fan.
The weather in Dalian has been just short of amazing these days. Warm temps and sunny skies abound. As a family we seized the opportunity to get out and breathe in some of that lovely Chinese air this past Sunday … mmmm. Actually Dalian’s air quality is one of the highest in Asia although some people have compared that to being the tallest pygmy in the crowd (jumbo shrimp, military intelligence .. fill in your oxymoron here). I was reeling from the effects of a nasty little stomach virus so I sat glumly on the sidelines while Alice and Da Boys were enjoying the high life. Here are some shots.
So easy to get a good photo of these two .. can you feel the love of mother and son?
Birds do it, Bees do it and it ain’t procreation - it’s redecorating your blog! I am not too proud to admit that I have followed in the footsteps of those who have blogged before me - namely the Harrison-Chows and the Englesons. All I have to say in my defense is - “Doesn’t it look nicer?”
Although improved cosmetically you can be rest assured that the quality of the posts here will live up to their usual high standard of informative entertainment.
These characters mean “Open Economic Development Zone” or “Development Zone” and they refer to areas in Chinese cities where special tax breaks and other incentives are given to foreign and joint venture companies to build offices and factories etc. If you have heard the term on this blog before that is because we live in Dalian’s Kai Fa Qu. We use the term Kai Fa Qu as if we were the only one but China has 40 or so Kai Fa Qu areas in separate cities.
This week two fellow staff members told me that they found this blog by searching the term Kai Fa Qu in Google. One of them told me that if you search Google Images one of the top images that appears is of Carter riding his tricycle in the posting Le Tour De Kai Fa Qu of October 4, 2006.
Nice to be famous or “famours” in Chinglish (Chinese speaking English).
Despite the number of photos of the event celebrating Alice’s birthday last night was a very modest affair but what she claims she wanted.
Getting ready to go out
Alice has been dying to have hotpot and so we went to our favourite hotpot spot. Hotpot is a popular way to eat in northeast China. It’s a DIY thing where you have a cauldron of boiling hot water with various flavour enhancing veggies and fungi floating around and then you add meat, noodles, vegetables, tofu, seafood etc to the broth and let it cook. The cauldrons are not very large usually so you are constantly dropping food into it and picking cooked food out as the conversation rages on around.
Blake ensuring we have enough lamb
Why so happy? Do you see any children in the vicinity?
Many think Sandy and Alice are sisters
After returning home I presented Alice with a cake I baked. Reviews were more mixed than the batter but she claims she liked it. Carter ate without abandon. He kept claiming that he didn’t want to sing “Happy Birthday” but when the time came he performed like a trooper. Nathan looked on in wonderment. Being new to this fatherhood business I am amazed at how little things like that can bring so much joy.
Le Gateau. Decorations a la moi!
Let them eat cake! (Let Nathan eat something from the floor!)
Today, March 19th, is Alice’s birthday. I want to take this time to wish my beautiful wife a very Happy Birthday!
Babe you are truly an amazing woman and I never give you enough credit for the things you do to make life and home a better place. Raising Carter and Nathan is not always an easy thing to do but you do it very well.
Well .. I have to say it .. my first job was working at McDonald’s. Yes - I had a McJob. In 1984 Van Halen was hitting their climax and mom decided that I was too old (16) to be laying around the house for yet another summer so when I became old enough to drive it was time to start earning some gas money. I was interviewed by head manager Rob (last name?) and his girlfriend Janet W. who left the store not long after my arrival but I believe there was no connection to the two events. They did ask me why I wanted the job and I wish I could remember what I answered. I would lay 50:50 odds on either “I don’t know” or “My mom wants me to get a job.” Somehow they sensed that despite my awkwardness I was a budding McDonald’s team member. I rose quickly through the ranks earning the titles of crew chief and then breakfast manager but further career ambitions within the corporation were put on the back burner so that I could attend UBC. Although people mock the job I have to say that it was one of the best professional development experiences of my life. For a kid that didn’t play sports it was also a great way to make new friends and I, like everyone, always wanted to wear a set of navy blue polyester pants with matching shirt. I am sure that back home some photos of me in the uni exist but fortunately I have none to post here. So here is my tribute to that great corporation the gave me my first big break.
McDonald’s Trivia
1) Nearly one in eight workers in the US has at some time been employed by McDonald’s.
2) Since its founding in 1955, McDonald’s has sold well over 100 billion hamburgers.
3) Sarah Michelle Gellar was sued by McDonalds at the age of four. She appeared in a Burger King advert where she said, “Do I look 20 per cent smaller to you? I must have at McDonalds because their hamburgers are 20 per cent smaller than Burger King’s.” It was the first time a company used another company’s name in an advert so McDonald’s sued Burger King, the advertising agency, and Sarah herself.
4) Montpelier, Vermont is the only U.S. state capital without a McDonald’s.
5) There are an average of 178 sesame seeds on a McDonald’s Big Mac bun.
6) On average, McDonald’s opens a new restaurant every three hours
7) The largest McDonald’s restaurant internationally measures more than 28,000 square feet and is located in Beijing, in the People’s Republic of China.
McDonald’s Vids
Here are the 3 lamest videos I could find on YouTube
1) Jason Alexander aka George Costanza does a McDLT commercial in the 80’s
2) Willard Scott debuts as the first Ronald McDonald
3) “You deserve a break today” commercial from the 70’s
Another chapter in the continuing saga of “Nathan On The Go”. This is part of his training regimen for his future career as the wrestler “Bulldog” Nathan Brown
As I watched Nathan getting ready for his bath something seemed familiar about his physique .. like I had seen it before. He is a pretty strong little kid and although not the biggest on the block he certainly can hold his own. Anyway looking at him it I finally realized he reminded me of Bulldog Bob Brown a wrestler from the 70’s and 80’s. I used to watch All Star wrestling with my Granny when I was a kid and Bulldog Bob Brown was always one of my favourites. Of course he had good company with the likes of Don Leo Jonathan, Sergeant Al Tomko, Nikolai Volkoff and of course Gene Kiniski Canada’s self proclaimed fittest athlete. Not many photos of Bulldog exist but I have found one that captures the essence of the man who was clearly past his prime at this point
Bulldog Bob Brown
And this one captures the essence of a man who is clearly AT his prime and will be for some time to come
Bulldog Nathan Brown
I can also offer as comparison evidence the fact that Nathan bites, scratches and pulls hair about as often as a professional wrestler does as well. He likes to throw toys around so we keep the folding chairs away from ringside.
While at first glance these two things (a case of Snow Beer and a frog shaped humidifer) have little in common but both of them are freebies we got for purchasing a refrigerator and an automatic washing machine. Why the purchase? Well .. to update the George and Weezy saga the new apartment was sadly lacking in the refrigerator and washing machine area (too small, too old and too junky) so we are buying new ones that we will put in the apartment and the landlady will store the old ones away until we leave. When we leave we either A) sell to new tenants (which we hope are future Maple Leaf Teachers), B) Sell to the landlady if she desires, C) Sell to anyone or D) Give to Alice’s mother as she is living on a fixed retirement income.
The freebies we could have chosen were 1) Beer or Pepsi and 2) Humidifier or small pancake maker. I don’t really drink beer at home but thought it would be a great thing to have for a housewarming party and the dry winter air necessitates a humidifer for the kids room.
As cheap as they are I have to say I looove getting the freebies.
As reported in other blogs (Dougie Sumo’s and Craig’s) at the beginning of this week we were hit with a massive windstorm that knocked out power, heat, water and damaged many many structures. Thankfully a coworker got some shots of the aftermath of this storm just to highlight the devastation and Craig has posted them to his flickr site.
Large billboards completely destroyed
All construction fences and scaffolding were ripped to pieces
Gates etc. destroyed
We have been told it was a mid-latitude cyclone centered somewhere in the Bohai Sea. In our fair suburb of Kai Fa Qu it looked like a war zone for a few days with all the twisted metal and debris. The winds were blowing people around like dolls and even overturned some cars. It was a good time to stay indoors.
Carter has had 3 days in school thus far and at the end of each day when I try to talk to him the following is the usual dialogue.
Dad: Did you go to school today?
Carter: Yeah
Dad: What did you do?
Carter: Play cars.
Dad: Did you listen to the teachers?
Carter: Yeah
Dad: Did they teach you things?
Carter: Yeah
Dad: What kind of things
Carter: Carter played cars.
The first small steps on the road to a great education.
The fourth stage of mobility (crawling, standing, cruising being 1 to 3) is dawning in Nathan’s life … using objects like walkers to get places. It is a huge conceptual shift for him to realize that he does not have to grab hold of stationary furniture and move along it but instead with some exertion and ingenuity he can make that furniture move for him. He began with a rolling office chair and has gotten quite good at it so tonight we put the Teletubbies walker in front of him and let him do his thing. Although not a hero like Rick Hansen he is definitely a “Man in Motion”.
Our time in good old Song Hai Li Building #11 Door #4 apartment #102 is sadly coming to an end. On April 20th our yearly contract comes to an end and our landlords have informed us the apartment is up for sale and so as James Brown might have said - We gotta git on out!
The search for an apartment was difficult on Alice’s part and I am sure that with endless questions and objections I was very little help. The search was exhaustive and took us to some places still in Song Hai Li, some in the neighbouring apartment communities of Song Ping Li and Tian An Seaview Gardens and in addition we even considered moving back to our old neighbourhood in the Hong Mei area.
We are happy to announce that the search is over and we will be making the big move to Song Hai Li Building #11 Door #4 apartment #301. If that address looks nearly identical to our current address that is because we are moving two floors up in the same building so need to make a new placemark in your GoogleEarth program.
In negotiations for the rent we were asking for many things to be fixed and some things to be replaced (ie new refrigerator and new tub). The landlady seems like a very busy person and really doesn’t want to be bothered with all of these details so she basically knocked the rent down well below market value and told us to use the difference to fix and replace what we want. That is an arrangement that we can definitely live with.
Today is supposed to be Carter Brown’s first day of school in the northeastern city of Dalian but he has woken up with a cough and seems like he might be a little ill. When asked about his school day status his coach and mentor, Alice Ma, replied “Well we don’t want to push the rookie too hard right out of the gate. We have a lot invested in him and believe that he will provide this organization with many great years to come so obviously even though it would be disappointing for the fans we may have to delay his debut a bit. Nothing has been decided yet and basically we are in a wait and see type of situation. Decision will be made at school time.”
This sudden news came as a surprise to those looking forward to seeing him suit up for the first time. There has been some controversy as to how he might fare at this level even though he has been mostly a standout at homeplay. Aspects of his game that still need improvement are the two main areas of sharing and doing what you are told. These are areas that any rookie must work on and so he is expected to improve greatly in those areas. He really mastered the alphabet while at home and that should bode well for learning any new material but with the switch in language it remains to be seen if the rookie sensation can adapt to the new grammar rules.
With all the pressure can the rookie perform? We here at MIMK will be following his career closely and will bring you all the news that’s fit to print.
As a junior Carter was a phenom at the “the slide”
Those two words mean “down rain” or to rain in Chinese.
Woke up this morning to a downpour of torrential proportions. The picture you see was taken at 10:30 AM and shows the tail end of the storm. Why the weather report? Well it’s Sunday and that is the usual day for us to play roller hockey in the bus parking lot in Kai Fa Qu but Mother Nature’s is suffering from PMS and evidently she is not a hockey fan. It would be bearable except we have only had 2 days of rain this week, today and on Thursday when we usually play ball hockey after school. The ball hockey match was much anticipated as it has been over 5 weeks since we have played as a group and the rain that began two hours before game time were NOT welcome. Always got roller hockey on Sunday we said at the time. As Charlie Brown would say RATS!
This day reminded me of a few Sundays at UBC when the rain was pouring down and I would sit in my room (sometimes doing homework but not as often as I should have been) and listen to ZZTop’s Blue Jean Blues on my stereo. The blues are my favourite style of music and there are many great tunes but for my money Billy Gibbons of ZZTop really nailed it with his “thick finger crunch” (his words). So if you are ever feeling blue and want to drown it out .. click the YouTube link below. It really isn’t a video but rather a photo montage with the song in the background but it serves the purpose.
A game of Crokinole would be pretty good right now Dad!
